Sunday Morning News Analysis: The Human Cost of the Budget Fight.

While Gov. Ed ...
... and state lawmakers have spent the past nine weeks squabbling over the long-delayed state budget, Elza Taylor has tried to figure out how she'll run her state-subsidized day care without the money she relies on from Harrisburg.

Taylor doesn't know if she can cover September's rent without the subsidies she receives for about a third of the 100 children at her day care in the Park in Hanover Township, Lehigh County.

''If I go into two months, I can't guarantee anything,'' Taylor said.

Caught in the middle of the budgetary skirmishing between Democrat Rendell and his Republican foes in the state House and Senate, child care providers join drug and alcohol counselors, those who provide services to the mentally retarded, and a host of others being used as weapons.

Three weeks after Rendell vetoed funding for scores of programs in a $27 billion budget plan sent to him by lawmakers, local social service providers are starting to feel the pinch.

Rendell has said he's willing to wait until lawmakers hand him a budget that provides funding for key programs and the ''recurring'' revenue needed to pay for them.

''The budget impasse is a battle over Pennsylvania's future,'' Rendell said last week.

Republicans say the battle is more a political shell game, with Rendell using his veto power to make pawns of social service programs that benefit the youngest and neediest members of society.

''The keystone of this administration is leverage and pressure to create crisis and confusion,'' said Steve Miskin, a spokesman for House Minority Leader Sam Smith, R-Jefferson. ''He [Rendell] wanted this crisis.''

In his public statements, Rendell has pointed the blame at Republicans who control the state Senate, arguing that he's made as many concessions as he's willing to make.

Now, he says, it's time for the GOP to show it's serious by agreeing to fund some of his pet programs or to boost spending for basic education by $300 million.

''We didn't have to do this,'' Rendell said during a rally for child care providers last week. ''There's no reason that we're here.''

But Republicans have fired back, saying Rendell has pursued spending and tax increases at a time when the state has a $3.25 billion deficit and most Pennsylvanians are struggling to make ends meet.

The scenario isn't new: Lawmakers and Rendell last trudged down this path in 2003, when Rendell vetoed education subsidies for the state's 501 school districts, successfully pressuring lawmakers to authorize a 10 percent income tax hike and new spending for schools, economic development and the environment.

Six years ago, the two sides came to an agreement just days before the Christmas holidays. And experienced Capitol hands fear they may hear carols before they hear news of a deal in 2009.

Observers say the current deadlock is a confluence of politics and policy.

Rendell, a lame-duck governor, has made no secret out of his strategy to use the veto to force lawmakers to a compromise. He's also said he wants to make sure his programs are secured and the state is on sound financial footing before he leaves office. And Rendell has been clear that he's not particularly concerned about how much his popularity suffers or how long it takes to get the deal he's looking for.

''Nothing will compromise our commonwealth's future,'' Rendell said during a rally for education funding last week that featured comedian Bill Cosby.

Republicans, who have their eye on recapturing seats in the state House and maintaining their 10-seat majority in the Senate, say they are heeding the lessons of history by curbing spending and not raising taxes while the economy is trying to crawl out of the gutter.

With both sides so thoroughly entrenched, ''this is the World War I budget -- everyone dug in early,'' said Christopher Borick, a political science professor and pollster at Muhlenberg College in Allentown. ''It's now down to someone deciding they don't want to do this anymore.''

Rank-and-file lawmakers, the foot soldiers in the battle, are tired of waiting in the trenches for their generals to make up their minds.

''This is chaos by the governor's design,'' said Sen. Lisa Boscola, D-Northampton, the only Senate Democrat to side with Republicans on a failed budget vote last week. ''It's like he thinks he can help the village by burning it down first. That doesn't work. Politics is getting in the way of solutions and I don't like the game he's playing right now.''

Social service agencies and their clients have become budget casualties. While the battle wages in Harrisburg, Melissa Gottfried is devising a Plan B in Allentown, where the Head Start classroom her 2-year-old son, Aaron, was expected to attend in September delays opening. Trying to work out a schedule that will allow her to continue with early childhood education classes while caring for Aaron, Gottfried said, ''It is going to cut into my study time.''

Rep. Doug Reichley, R-Lehigh, the second-ranking Republican on the House Appropriations Committee, said there's an easy way to end the deadlock. All Rendell has to do is accept that no one in the Legislature, includingDemocrats, will vote for a tax increase to pay for the type of budget increases Rendell wants, and that hundreds of state workers almost certainly must be laid off to balance the budget.

''He can pound his chest or pound the podium all he wants. For every social group he trots out to make his case, I get 10 calls from constituents who are dead-set against a tax increase during this fiscal crisis,'' Reichley said.

In the meantime, Rashaan Rosenbaum of south Allentown, has to deal with a new wrinkle in his efforts to find a job. When the Allentown Public Library missed a $361,000 payment in July and was forced last week to announce it will shutter its south branch, Rosenbaum, who's out of work and doesn't drive, lost access to the computers he was using in his job search.

Now he'll have to pay to take a bus into center city to use the computers at Allentown's main library.

''It's very inconvenient,'' he said.

(with able assists from our colleagues Scott Kraus and Matt Assad in Allentown, who were co-writers.)

Current Comments

Why more money thrown at education? All the money we have given in the name of education doesn't seem to have helped. There are teachersl copying pages of books to provide students with text. We should be looking at how the money educators have is being spent.

We were told by a principal that money received goes to football because that is what brings recognition to a school. Football does provide futures for more than a few chosen players. All students need books to ensure they will be able to read and get enough education to get jobs later on.

Posted By: Audrey | Aug 24, 2009 10:47:17 AM

More helpful than finger pointing between the parties would be constructive dialogue to find middle ground. In a recent conversation with a Republican rep from the suburbs (whose constituents are largely unaffected by reductions in social services), it was clear that he and his colleagues are adamantly against all possible tax alternatives. It's a case of whose ox is getting gored. "Better the needy kids!" After all, they have no voice.

Posted By: Sara | Aug 24, 2009 9:07:47 AM

IS RENDELL DESTROYING THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY? It is frightening that Mr. Rendell thinks that it is proper to put the services to our least defenseless citizens on the line in order to force a tax increase to help the pet projects of our wealthiest citizens. The Rich People in Philly have their hands out for $107mn in PA Taxpayer matching funds to start building The Controversial Barnes On The Parkway Project this Fall or in 2010. And in October 2008, while the stock market was in freefall, Rendell promised an additional $30mn to PEW TRUSTS & COMCAST etc. to help them with the same Barnes On The Parkway Project which involves dismantling the Landmark Barnes Museum in Philly and moving it just 5 miles. That is $137mn for a project that few citizens in PA seem to know about. This man appears Barnestruck and absolutely self-absorbed with his bizarre Barnes legacyquest. That $30mn, for instance, would fund all the childrens' and community arts programs in PA for an entire year and $137mn would fund 4+years. This Barnes Project is an outrageous abuse of the Taxpayer Trust. PLEASE GET A NEW LEGACY Mr. GOVERNOR - ONE OF REPRESENTATION OF AND FOR THE PEOPLE! WE DON'T WANT YOUR BARNES MOVE! STOP THE MOVE! KEEP THE BARNES IN MERION! See Barnesfriends.org (P.S. stop using education as an excuse to fund The Barnes On The Parkway Fiasco! - stop playing with our childrens lives they aren't pawns so you can engage in Museum building!)

Posted By: silence dogood | Aug 24, 2009 1:20:38 AM

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